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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday May 16, 2007 - 3 Stephen Lewis inspires students By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Stephen Lewis received a standing ovation before he even said a word. The former United Nations Special Envoy for AIDS/HIV in Africa addressed a crowd of more than 800 at Iroquois Ridge Friday as part of the high school's Annual Global Conference: Raising Awareness ­ HIV/AIDS and the Race Against Time. Lewis, who founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation to work at the grassroots and ease the pain of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, called the school's preparation for the conference "as compelling and as formidable as I have seen in a very long time." As soon as you walked through the doors of Iroquois Ridge on Friday, it was obvious it wasn't just any other day. Students were wearing red tshirts bearing the word `Inspired' to draw attention to the pandemic, selling raffle tickets to benefit Lewis' foundation, manning booths, giving out pamphlets with information about HIV/AIDS and selling red ribbons. The library, gym and many classrooms housed 14 different workshops for students led by Engineers without Borders, World Vision, the Halton AIDS Clinic and other organizations and not-for-profit groups whose work relates to Africa's plights. Right to Play's Tania Wybenga told students about how the nongovernmental organization not only provides sporting equipment to young athletes in Africa, but also educates the population on safe practices. "In a boxing gym we visited, they had to share mouth guards," Wybenga said. "Even if they get cut in the mouth, they just hand the mouth guard off to the next guy and in it goes. "It was important that we were able to give them not only more mouth guards, but information about safe and unsafe practices. This way, they're able to protect themselves." While most students attended workshops throughout the day, those who chose to go to normal classes took part in special lesson plans geared towards the conference day. "In music class, it was really fun, we had to make our own African drums," said Grade 10 student Ruckshan De Silva, one of several members of the Stephen Lewis Planning Committee. "If you're in history you're looking at the history of AIDS and HIV. All of the classes are different." The school had been gearing up for this day for months. It all started after a world issues class read Lewis' book, Race Against Time, and want- LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER LEWIS IN TOWN: Stephen Lewis has a laugh with some Iroquois Ridge students before speaking during the high school's Global Conference on Friday. Lewis just finished a term as the UN's special envoy for HIV/AIDs in Africa. ed to take action. Fundraising efforts resulted in the school surpassing its $10,000 goal to donate to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. On Friday, students handed over $12,014.16 to Lewis himself. "At the beginning of the week, we didn't look like we were even close to our goal, but we've had so much support," said De Silva, one of two students in charge of fundraising. "We're really proud of our school." But the most important result of the effort, students noted, is the increased awareness. "Most people didn't even know who Stephen Lewis was at first," said Michelle Beck, a member of the planning committee, who was decked out in an Inspi(red) t-shirt, a campaign by The Gap to raise awareness about the AIDS pandemic. er member of the planning committee. "Everyone in the school is now actively aware of the AIDS pandemic." Any questions students may have had about its severity were answered in Lewis' passionate address to the school. In a more than hour-long address, Lewis, who recently finished his term as UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, didn't need notes to remember any statistics or to drive his points home. He has seen the pandemic first hand over the past five years. "Nothing strikes to the heart of the human condition more viscerally, more disastrously, than HIV and "Now you ask yourself, why is the life of a Western child worth so much more than the life of an African child? Why does the world work that way?" Stephen Lewis "Now, everyone knows." "It's safe to say that every student in our school knows who Stephen Lewis is and what his foundation does," added Stephen Soock, anoth- LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER AUTOGRAPH SESSION: Stephen Lewis signs a copy of Reawaken, a magazine created by students, including (right) Laura Fedorshyn and Sidra Buuch. AIDS," he said. Twenty-five million are dead. Forty million battle the infection today. In South Africa alone, 1,000 people die every day of AIDS. "There's never been anything like this in human history, and we do not have it under control," Lewis said. In fact, he told students, it's getting worse. Lewis cited a report that shows every single country in the world has seen its number of HIV infections and deaths from AIDS climb from the year 2004 to 2006. "There was no government or country that was immune," Lewis said, looking through the crowd. "In Africa, it's particularly disheartening. "This demonstrates that we haven't yet been able to come to grips with the pandemic." It's affecting those ages 15-24 the most, an age group many in the crowd, that included students from Iroquois, T.A. Blakelock, Acton, Joshua Creek, Burlington Central, Abbey Park, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Mildred's and Georgetown high schools, belong to. "Children are deeply affected by this in a way the world fails to acknowledge," said Lewis. Two million children have AIDS, yet just 15 per cent of them are getting the treatment they need, he added. "What does this say about the world's view on children?" Many children become infected during the birthing process. While there is what Lewis calls "a wonder drug" to cut the chance of offspring becoming infected by more than half, only 11 per cent of HIV positive pregnant women in Africa have access to the drug. "They can't even get their hands on the drug, and so all these kids are born, hundreds of thousands of children, destined to an early death," Lewis said, his voice raising. "It makes absolutely no sense." In Europe and North America, HIV positive mothers go through what Lewis called a "full course of treatment" and the chances their baby will be HIV-free are 90 per cent. "Now you ask yourself, why is the life of a Western child worth so much more than the life of an African child? Why does the world work that way?" he said. "Why is there this grotesque and ugly difference in the lives of children who are born in Africa and the lives of children who are born in Canada?" Many of the children born HIVfree in Africa will have to live through the disease anyway, watching parents die of the disease. That was another point Lewis raised: the incredible number of children orphaned by AIDS in Africa. He described a trip he took to Swaziland, where he watched a group of school children perform a musical number. See Lewis page 11